This Mad World
by Natecchi
Summary: He found it kind of funny and kind of sad. The dreams, in which he died, were the best he ever had. AoKaga


Happy Birthday to the ace of my heart, Aomine Daiki!~  
I'm sorry, my baby, it's not like Kagami's, but I wanted to write something like this.  
Somehow I stumbled upon Gary Jules' Mad World and heck, those lines inspired me to write this.  
It's weird, but bear with me *sticks out tongue*

* * *

The man laughed as wind blew past him. Stretching his hands wide and looking at the large horizon which pictured one of the most beautiful sunsets he ever saw, he stepped forward, diving into the empty space underneath his feet. He felt the gravity dragging him into the dark embrace of death, but everything he could do in that moment was to smile wider, just like the madman he was. A madman in his own mad world.

* * *

Deep blue eyes blinked and opened fully at the bright sunlight which slipped through the curtains. He groaned and covered his eyes with the back of his hand in order to block the penetrating rays. He felt his head throbbing with pain and hissed. A tanned hand reached to the nightstand and switched off the loud alarm. Turning, he faced the wall and sighed deeply.

That was another start of a new yet usual day.

Aomine went through his morning routine with almost robotic movements, lifelessly dragging his feet around his house. He didn't feel annoyed or bored, or anything at all. He was just an empty shell of the person he was once.

Dropping his glass of juice, both the glass and its content scattered and spilled on the kitchen floor, he just stared at it with a blank expression. He knelt down to clean up the mess. Aomine ran his hand absentmindedly over the broken glass' pieces. Obviously it cut him deeply. He hissed at the pain and withdrew his wounded hand, turning it to inspect the cut.

There was blood but no trace of the actual cut, as expected. It healed before he even saw it. Sighing, he gathered the pieces of glass and cleaned up. Finishing his breakfast and slipping in his uniform, he walked out of his house, locking everything up before getting into his car and driving to his workplace. Indeed, an usual day.

Walking through the large doors of the Police Department, he was greeted by a shouting Wakamatsu and a very worried Sakurai, who kept apologizing for an unknown reason.

"Aomine, get your bulletproof vest, it's an emergency!" his senpai shouted storming out, Sakurai following him quickly.

Aomine snorted and exited the Department, without a glance back.

They hopped into a larger car and Wakamatsu drove them off to the place the emergency was at.

Aomine checked his gun and when the car stopped, all three policemen exited and walked up to a house. Wakamatsu signaled Sakurai to stay out to secure them, while he and Aomine entered the house tiptoeing, their guns ready to take aim.

Entering the living room, they exchanged looks before Wakamatsu continued to inspect the first floor while Aomine went upstairs. The tanned man kept his breath steady and steps light as he walked down the hall, passing by every door and stopping to listen for any signs of someone moving in there.

Wakamatsu told them that they got a call about five minutes before Aomine arrived at the Department. It was something about someone armed breaking into that house and taking the owner as a hostage. At least that was what saw the neighbor through the window. The old lady's voice was trembling when she called the police, practically begging to save _Taiga_. Probably that was the name of the guy taken as hostage.

Aomine took another step forward, but stopped in his tracks when he heard muffled talk and some shuffling. He slowly cracked the door to the room he heard noises in and peeked inside.

A large man, about more than two meters tall, held a smaller one by wrists, pointing his gun at the man's head. Aomine's navy eyes quickly inspected the redheaded hostage for any injuries and calmed a bit when he found none. However, his breath caught in his throat and muscles slightly tensed when he saw _Taiga's_ face.

There was no fear or panic on that face. He even looked like he was perfectly composed and calm, too calm for the situation he was in. And that seemed to irritate the big guy with the gun.

Aomine huffed silently. Or this redhead was too confident about the fact that the other wasn't going to pull the trigger, or he was a total idiot. It seemed to be the latter.

Aomine decided to show himself before it was too late and he'd have to gather the redhead's brains from those walls and floor.

With his hands gripping the gun tighter, he kicked hardly the door and aimed at the armed guy yelling "Police! Drop the gun and hold your hands up!"

The big guy seemed to be startled for a brief second, but recovered quickly, grabbing the hostage and pressing the gun to redhead's temple. The said redhead didn't even flinch, if something, he rolled his crimson eyes.

Aomine's navy eyes bore into his and he slightly inclined his head to his left. It was a signal for the redhead to struggle and break free out of other's grasp, so Aomine could do his job without being worried about hostage's life.

 _Taiga_ seemed to understand what was on policeman's mind as he followed that blue-haired head with his gaze. He sighed – something Aomine didn't understand the reason of – and kicked the man in the leg, stomping hard on guy's feet. That let out a pained yelp and loosened his grip on redhead's hands, much to Aomine's relief, and _Taiga_ was able to break free.

However, the man was angry at both of them so he raised his gun, took aim and pulled the trigger. Aomine shot back as well, and was silently cheering that he didn't kill the bastard, but only shot his knee. He rushed to the now laying and screaming man, taking the gun away from him, when he felt his shirt getting soaked.

He turned around and saw a pair of wide crimson eyes looking at him in disbelief and shock. Navy eyes drifted from redhead's face to the front of his shirt and he groaned loudly. Blood was dripping down his shirt and pants, soaking them in the deep red liquid. Aomine wanted to smack himself for his stupidity. He _had_ to take the bulletproof vest, as Wakamatsu told him. Now he had to explain why he was so casual with having a hole in his stomach.

Wakamatsu and Sakurai rushed into the room next, and Aomine was on the verge of crying. Just how many people were going to know about his secret now? Gladly, the guy on the floor was too preoccupied with his own wound to notice Aomine's. Wakamatsu practically ran to Aomine having color drained from his face.

"Aomine! You were shot?" his senpai eyed his shirt and yelled "Where's the bulletproof vest?"

Wakamatsu paled. "Sakurai, the ambulance, now!" Sakurai fumbled with the phone and called the ambulance. Aomine shook his head and sighed again. It was such a pain in the ass seriously.

"I don't need one, calm the fuck down. He's the one who needs medical assistance here." Aomine said and pointed at the injured man lying on the floor. Then, to prove his words, he took off the bloodied shirt revealing strong chest and muscled back. There was a lot of blood, indeed, but no wounds. Wakamatsu frowned, inspecting him. With a soft clink, the bullet which was supposed to be inside of a dying Aomine, fell on the wooden floor causing everyone to look at it.

"But how-?" Wakamatsu murmured in astonishment. Here it goes, the questions. Aomine hated it when he had to explain things.

"I'll tell you later." Aomine cut him off. He was tired to deal with it at the moment. "For now, get this guy a doctor and some cell," he looked at the man writhing in pain on the floor. Then his gaze locked with the redhead's, who was surprisingly silent "and get a blanket for that one." He stomped out of the room, gripping his bloodied and now, ruined shirt in his left hand while his right one held tightly his gun.

He hated to go into details about himself, and especially about this. But he had to, at least if he wanted to continue being Aomine Daiki, the grumpy asshole of police officer. He had this personality for three years already and didn't plan to change it, soon at least.

The ambulance arrived in five minutes and took the injured guy to the nearest hospital, and Wakamatsu called their chef to report. Their chef told him that they're going to send two officers at the hospital to guard the criminal, so he won't have any chances to escape. Not like it was possible anyway, because who could walk around with a shot knee?

Wakamatsu finished his call and looked at the two officers. Sakurai was nervously fidgeting and throwing worried glances to his colleague while Aomine silently looked out of the window, still shirtless and covered in blood. Wakamatsu sighed and went into the house to talk to the victim.

The redhead, Kagami Taiga, stood by the front door and seemed to look at Aomine who was in the car, and facing other way, so he didn't notice him staring. Wakamatsu observed it but didn't comment.

"Kagami-san, I need you to come with us. We have some questions to ask, if you don't mind."

"Sure." Kagami simply replied, grabbing his keys and wallet, locking the door and walking to the police car beside Wakamatsu.

Wakamatsu thought that the redhead seemed too calm for a man whose life was threatened not long ago, and it made him suspicious a bit.

They walked to the car and Kagami hopped inside, taking the seat beside Aomine. Only then, navy eyes moved from the window and looked into a pair of crimson ones. Kagami smiled wide at him and Aomine was kind of taken aback.

"Thank you." Taiga softly murmured still looking into those deep blue eyes. He seemed to be relieved for some reason.

"You're welcome, I guess." Aomine shrugged and turned to glare out of window as the car drove off. He still felt the burning gaze of those crimson eyes on him, even if he tried to ignore it. What was this guy's problem anyway?

They arrived at the station in few and Aomine excused himself, going to take a shower and grab some clean clothes from his locker.

He took a quick shower and slipped into some pants and t-shirt he found, heading back to his small desk. Wakamatsu was already there, waiting for him. Aomine didn't look at him as he asked grumpily "What?"

"I'd like some explanations to earlier events," Wakamatsu drawled "but for now, I need you to interrogate the victim."

A thin blue eyebrow rose questioningly and his senpai huffed, clearly annoyed "He said he will answer only to you. This _Kagami Taiga_ is very suspicious."

Aomine nodded "Okay, I'll talk with him." He headed to the interrogatory room and frowned. Why they put a victim in there anyway? But if Wakamatsu said he was suspicious, then maybe he really was. Shrugging to himself, he entered the room and red eyes instantly looked at him with some unreadable emotion in them. It felt almost like he was happy to see Aomine.

Aomine took a seat on the opposite chair, put the notebook and the pen on the table and crossed his hands in front of him. Taking a deep breath and focusing his eyes on the red ones, he began his interrogation.

"Your name, age and profession." he spoke softly.

The man's eyes widened a bit before going back to normal. He smiled sheepishly and Aomine thought that he liked that smile "Kagami Taiga. I'm a chef at _Paradise_ restaurant." the redhead replied, but he tensed up a bit and it didn't go unnoticed by Aomine.

"Age?" Aomine repeated.

"It's… 25, I guess."

Aomine's eyebrow went upward questioningly. _'What the heck? You guess?'_

Before Aomine could open his mouth, Kagami continued a bit too enthusiastically "I didn't think there were others beside me, I'm kind of nervous, sorry."

Aomine looked totally confused "Others?"

"Yeah, let me show you." Kagami said and took Aomine's pen. Something told him it's a very bad idea to let the redhead do what he wanted. But before Aomine could even react, with a swing, Kagami stabbed his own hand and hissed at the pain. Blood ran down his hand and on the table's surface.

"What the fuck you're doing, idiot?" Aomine yelled and grabbed the pen from him and threw it away, before taking the injured hand in his. It was surprisingly warm and sticky with the dripping red liquid, but when he turned it, there was no wound.

Navy eyes raised up from the bloody hand, which he still held tightly, to Kagami's face. The redhead looked back at him, slightly amused but even so, the tenderness in his ruby eyes was too clear to not notice.

"Finally," he murmured softly, running his trembling fingers over Aomine's knuckles "I found someone."

Aomine forgot how to talk, how to breathe. Kagami smiled at him and it helped to calm his hammering heart. He took a deep breath and spoke, his voice too quiet for his liking.

"You too?"

The redhead nodded, his smile still radiant and beautiful. Aomine squeezed that hand tighter "Good." he laughed "Very good."

Aomine moved his other hand and took Kagami's with both "Year?" he asked.

Kagami looked at their hands and mused a bit before answering "1916. You?"

"Same." he chuckled humorlessly and Kagami tensed "Do you think they still use people for their experiments?"

Kagami's smile faded and its place took a sad expression "Hopefully not. I destroyed some of their samples and documents before my escape, but who really knows." he trailed off, his look distant, like he remembered something.

"So, you were able to escape? Lucky you."

"Don't tell me…"

"Yeah, they used me for the exact purpose they made me for. I forgot how many times I _died_." A stray tear rolled down his tanned cheek and he felt Kagami's warm hand reaching and wiping it away.

"I'm sorry."

Aomine shook his head "You shouldn't be."

"Daiki, right?" Aomine nodded and Kagami's lips quirked up "You're not alone. Not anymore."

"Yeah," Aomine gently traced his fingers over redhead's palm "I'm not." He smiled genuinely for the first time in 100 years.

* * *

He found it kind of funny and kind of sad. The dreams, in which he died, were the best he ever had.

But here he was, running from a pack of hungry wolves. He felt fear after so many years.

The wolves were faster and obviously surrounded him. One by one, they attacked him, they teared his flesh with their sharp fangs. Blood splattered on the ground and everything Aomine could feel was the immense pain and fear. His body was trembling in terror. For the first time in his miserable life he wanted to live. He screamed and cried out loud.

 _'Kagami. Kagami. Kagami.'_ he chanted like a prayer in his mind.

Suddenly, everything was enveloped by darkness and he felt so cold. So _dead_.

He wasn't smiling anymore. He was silently sobbing.

Deep blue eyes blinked and opened fully. A pair of crimson ones stared back at him with concern.

"Are you okay?" Kagami asked "You had a nightmare probably. I was trying to wake you up, but you just wouldn't, no matter how hard I shook or called your name." he sighed, running his long fingers tenderly through Aomine's sweaty hair "But I'm glad you finally woke up. Whatever it was, it was something really terrifying."

"Yeah," Aomine replied, his voice thick and raspy "I was dying."

Kagami blinked at him in confusion "Really? Is it something _you_ should worry about?"

"Yeah, " Aomine repeated. He reached and cupped Kagami's face, pulling him into a soft kiss. He pulled back and looked into those beautiful ruby eyes with affection "I don't want to die anymore. I want to live forever, by your side."


End file.
